As we know, EHD hit the midwest pretty hard in some areas last year. For those of you that were hit hard by it last year, what are you seeing in regards to antler growth this year?
I won't get my cameras out until this week and still have a ton of fall plots to put out due to wet weather this summer. What I'm seeing first hand while checking crops though is a lot of fawns and does and about the typical numbers of bucks. And normal antler sizes for here so far. I found two dead bucks this spring from last winter and fall. One was still in velvet when he died so assuming disease, was probably a high 140's ten point, the other had died off late winter or early spring and could have been a gun fatality but no way to tell for sure, he was a nice 140" 8 point.
Last year, we cut back a ton on the number of deer we took off our property due to the number we found dead before the season. We were lucky to see 2 deer per sit. I just went squirrel hunting with my bow out of a stand last Friday and saw 9... Looks like it's paying off!
It hurt a lot of places I know that. It wasn't bad in Colorado but Nebraska it hit hard as well as lots of other places. I hope everyone's deer herds are recovering and the big strong ones survived.
I'm seeing a lot less mature bucks. But, I'm not so sure that they were killed by EHD rather than hunters. I only have 2 bucks on camera as of right now that I would shoot. Several good 3.5 year olds though, next year should be very good.
I found 2 of my top 3 shooters dead from EHD last year. Found 163Inch 12 pointer dead in an open field. Found 180inch 10 pointer dead in a creek. I also found a potential shooter 140 inch 10 point dead in a valley between two creeks. All where found late august to first week of September... I haven't gotten one deer on camera this year over 150. Not as many does on the farm this year... I went out and got 2 new leases this year to hopefully find a shooter to chase...
The remaining deer look healthy and the fawn crop is the best since 2010 pre drought. With that said I've seen on camera an abundance of 2 and 3 year old bucks, but the big mature bucks are ghostly at best this year. They're out there, but judging from the abundance of mature dead heads, and lack of mature sheds I've found and other land owners in the area have found the mature bucks took a hit the past 2 years. The future is looking bright tho!
it hit hear in nc but i kept my deer healty all year long so i geuss it worked.lesson learnd feed and help your deer all year long.
Can see a slight shift in age structure but the bucks look very healthy this year and made a really jump in antler growth.
I am seeing more deer and what seems like better developed antlers. But wth it not raining much here over the past month I hope nothing bad happens
